Reality Gone
by The Lonesome Rose
Summary: Jason Walsh is linked to a series of murder he had nothing to do with while Sunnydale is robbed of their slayer and the second precinct might suddenly have a larger mess on their hands than anything they've seen before. Cue the Scoobies. Buffy/ Angel/ Unusuals crossover
1. Chapter 1

Casey squinted against the glare coming in and grabbed Walsh's pillow to cover her face. "If we're not getting called in, I'm not getting up till noon."

"Maybe being a "mistress of the night" isn't so great after all."

She heard the smirk in his voice and aimed a blind swipe in his general direction. "Shut up and get me some coffee. Least you can't ruin that."

"Whoa, are you complaining about my superior culinary skills? No pancakes for you."

Casey hummed in contentment when the bed shifted and she felt his hand languidly running up and down her back. "Crushing up pretzels in fried eggs isn't gourmet."

"Gonna have to earn those pancakes, Shraeger."

She rolled onto her back and leaned up to wipe that quirk off his lips with a kiss. "Gonna have to get that coffee soon then, Walsh."

He cupped her shoulders, nuzzling her neck with a mumble of "shower first" before he pulled away. He snagged a clean pair of jeans from the closet before heading towards the bathroom.

"Better not pull that sick decaf decoy on me again!" Casey fluffed the pillow before curling up beneath the covers tightly and sighing luxuriously. "I _will_ kill you!"

The shower was already running so she didn't hear his comeback, but she imagined he would've retorted with some lame reply that they were partners in more than one sense of the word. Arrogant bastard, she thought with a mental eyeroll. "You know I only stay for the pancakes anyway." It was about the only decent thing he could make, aside from the coffee. Or that might just be her sleep deprived after sharing his bed. She wished she'd captured the look on Sargent Brown's face when their office romance became public.

She must've dozed off because the shower had stopped and she smiled, eyes still closed, when she heard Jason coming back. "Got that coffee for me…?"

"Hands above your head and no sudden moves."

Casey sat up with a start, hand going for the gun Walsh kept beneath his pillow to point it at the four policemen surrounding the bed. "What the hell's going on?! JASON, they're mobbing us again!"

"Lower the gun."

"Casey Shraeger, second precinct." She kept both hands on the gun, ignoring the bedsheets that pooled around her waist. A pissed woman in black lingerie was always more threatening than regular cops. Or so Jason had slipped, more than once. "You want to take this higher up? We can take this higher up."

The officer didn't waver, but she could tell he was trying to keep his eyes on her face and stay professional. Maybe the intimidation thing was working after all. "Stand down."

"Look, we got a couple knock-off cops attempt to mug us last week. If this is another…" she stopped when she saw the rest of the officers come in, dragging a soggy and towel-clad Jason in front of them. Soap still glistened and formed soft peaks in his hair. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Case, put the gun down. They're the real deal, this time."

She set the gun down. "I hope that doesn't count as resisting arrest…extenuating circumstances."

"There's been a series of murders around town and a number of the witnesses ID'd Detective Walsh as the killer. We need to take him into custody."

"You _are_ aware I'm a cop like you guys, right? A _homicide_ detective."

"Cops go bad like anyone else. They _ID'd_ you, Walsh." The head officer pulled out a second pair of cuffs and motioned Casey to stand up. "He had an accomplice."

Casey exchanged an incredulous look with Jason before getting out of the bed. "_You've got to be kidding me._ Can I at least get some clothes on first?"

**Three Days Earlier. (Sunnydale)**

"Sometimes I don't know why I'm even trying to go through this. You know, the whole going to college like everyone else and pretending I'm normal. I mean, it's not like I can quit slaying and pick up some _normal _occupation."

"Well, it's about having a routine, right?" Willow tried helping. "You know, doing this slaying of the classes and homework during the day and taking the vampires out at night. Slaying, that's what it is. Cause, you're good with the slaying. All that...slaying and the fighting and the slaying."

Buffy laughed. "Thanks, Will. I'm glad I have some future besides blowing off money for a degree I don't need, for a career I won't have."

"It never hurt to have an educated slayer."

The slayer rolled her eyes at the retired Watcher that came up behind them with a stake poised in his right hand.

"If I'd have known the difference it would've made, I would've encouraged you toward more academics in high school. Northeast corner of the cemetery is secure."

Willow leaned forward eagerly. "You actually found one and you know, slayed it? Wow, Buffy, Giles' got one up on you tonight."

Buffy stood from the spot she and Willow had secured as their observatory and pointed once at herself and then at Giles. "Slayer. Watcher. Don't get them confused."

Giles chuckled briefly before slipping back into Serious Watcher Mode. "The vampires aren't going to come to you and beg to be staked. You might try to cease your gossiping and actually try to act like you're on a patrol."

"I was complaining about the uselessness of being in college. You could at least try being sympathetic."

"Time and place, Buffy." Giles moved away again. "I'll try by the back exit."

Buffy stared after him and then back at Willow. "Can you believe him?" she jerked a thumb in the direction he'd gone. "He actually thinks he's a better slayer than me. I'll show him."

"C'mon, Buffy, we'll find some big horrible vampire and stake him before Giles can even say "slayer"." Willow linked arms with Buffy and steered her in the opposite direction that Giles had gone. "There's bound to be at least a couple waiting behind tombstones thinking they're all tough and can take down the slayer. Maybe if we split up..."

"Sure thing, Will." Buffy broke away from her friend and began making her way through the rows of tombstones, eyes peeled for anything vampiric. But it had become harder and harder to distance college life from slayer life-it never helped when the forces of evil found their way into her dorm room. Then there was the homework. Sometimes she was lucky if she could break from patrolling long enough to write a six-page essay or study for... "Oh crap, _the exam_. I'll never pass in psychology if I don't get at least a B on the cumulative tomorrow." Buffy was about ready to curse the forces of darkness radiating from the Hellmouth and set her stake down then and there if she wanted to have any sort of future at all. "What am I supposed to tell mom when I don't graduate from college? Gee. mom, I really did try but the forces of darkness were bent on thwarting my straight A's. I mean, it's not like I _asked_ them to cause chaos just so I'd have an excuse to fail. Why can't demons take a summer break like the rest of us?!"

She spun, stake at the ready, at a rustle from behind her and lunged at a demon. "I mean, really! Can't you all hibernate during the school year or something!" She dodged its fist and grabbed it by the throat. "Are you finding this funny? Cause I'm not." She was distracted by the glowing blue amulet hanging from the demon's neck. "Well. This looks interesting. Want to tell me about it before I pull it off your cold, dead carcass?" she asked with a false cheer.

"You won't always be the slayer." It rammed its forehead into hers.

Buffy fell back with a grunt, but quickly recovered herself and tore after the escaping demon. "Yeah? Want to try doing something about that? Dozens have tried... you heard of The Master? Took him down. Twice. Kakistos? Also dead." She aimed the stake and caught the demon in the leg. "You're practice compared to them."

"When the slayer is gone, the forces of the Hellmouth with take over this town and your little friends will be dead," it hissed as it lay bleeding on the ground.

Buffy came up, crouched beside it and pulled out her stake. "See, I'm not seeing the proper fear and terror from you right now. You should really work on that."

"Buffy!"

At Willow's cry, she turned and saw her friend pinned against a tombstone, stake laying five feet away, and a hungry vampire about to bite her. Buffy tossed her stake. "Willow, catch!"

Willow managed to catch the stake and fend off the vampire with a cross clenched in her other hand. "Yeah and take _that_, you bloodsucking demon! Not so tough now." She staked it and watched it crumble to ash.

"No more slayer, only chaos..."

"HEY!" Buffy grabbed at the demon when it leapt up and caught it by the amulet. The chain broke with the force of her tug and demon sank its nails into her arm. "Slayer..."

Willow dusted off her clothes from the tussle with the agent of darkness and stopped with a scream of "Buffy!" when the demon and slayer were sucked into a blurred blue haze that radiated from the demon. Then gone. "GILES. GILES. It got Buffy!"

The Watcher came running several seconds later, panting for breath and saw Willow lean to pick up something from the ground. "What happened? Where's Buffy?"

Willow gingerly picked up the broken chain, careful not to touch the amulet dangling from it. "I don't know..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Present (NYC)**

"This is stupid. The whole precinct could vouch for your character and we're stuck here wasting away our time off," Casey grumbled, glaring at the cuffs binding him to the table. "We could be having those pancakes now. And coffee. Followed by more non-sleeping."

"That's your idea of time off? Bit of food and a lot of sex?"

"Hot sex."

"Your parents know you're dating your partner?"

"They've asked us to dinner a couple times. I always found convenient excuses though so it's not like we _have_ to go for a couple weeks. And don't worry, my mother would rather have an epilepsy then step foot inside the diner."

Jason propped his chin in his hands, watching her. "You think they'd like me? I mean, seems your parents would be big on the ritzy boyfriends."

"Okay, first I don't care what they think and second, thought you weren't my boyfriend." Casey smirked at him. "You're my man, Walsh."

"So basically I'm the only guy you want to get into a bed with. What about Davis? Thought you two had a good thing going there."

"Davis was a fruitcake."

"So I'm what? Triple layer fudge?"

"Is that what Beaumont called you while you were snuggling?"

"Har har. Least she didn't go into this whole food thing like you do."

"You know you like it cause fruitcakes don't do hot sex."

"Will you two _shut up_." An officer poked in the door, glaring. "I heard your weird-ass conversation from halfway across the room.

Casey looked him on fearlessly. "Get your ass in here right now and go through procedure or shut the hell up and risk getting fired. My father could have you off packing before you could even think about pink slip avoidance."

"I'll get the file."

"Good boy" she waved him off with mock sweetness.

"You really know how to handle a guy, don't you?" it was Jason's turn to smirk at her. "You'll have him seeing nightmares for two weeks after this interrogation."

"Meh. They asked for it when they were stupid enough to list you as a murder suspect. It isn't quite your area of expertise. Well, I suppose it could be after the weirder things we've seen…"

"Baiting you and solving murders. My areas of expertise."

Casey grinned, leaning closer to slip her fingertips beneath the waistband of his jeans. "I'm not arguing."

"I didn't want to have to do this, Detective, but you know how the procedure goes. Two witnesses came forward and ID'd you. There were two murders the night before and last night." The officer slid the file forward showing the gritty images of two young women and one man—two of them had snapped necks and the other had a dent in his skull. "Multiples bruises on the victims' bodies. Something attacked them, but there were hardly any defensive wounds. And this…" he rearranged the photos to show one of the women with a cross carved into her left cheek.

"Looks like someone really didn't like these people."

"Was that mark on all the victims?" Jason pictured up the facial shot to study it closer.

"Just that one."

"It's too clean to be a scratch. Time of death?"

"Between 9:30 and 9:43. Where were you both at that time?"

Casey folded her arms. "We were getting off work last night. A couple of the other cops were still on duty and they can vouch for us… Alvarez was there and I remember his wife ran into us…"

"_Everyone_ remembers that part" interjected Jason, trying to stifle a chuckle. "Then we went our usual hangout place a few blocks down from the precinct and met Delahoy and his new girl for drinks."

"The night before that?"

"We got off a little earlier than usual. Walsh cooked up something weird—I _think_ it was supposed to be meatloaf—then we settled down to the second half of _Titanic _and had sweet, wild sex while the ship went down."

The officer paused in writing the report. "How is that appropriate? People are _dying_ and you're more interested in…"

"I have more than respect for the fallen. I blame James Cameron. One of these days I'll write and tell him what his movie makes me do. Well. You got your report. Are we done here?"

"You might have alibis but I'm going to need statements from the witnesses you were with. I'm also going to need to get your prints and DNA on file in case we get a hit on the real murderer."

"Joy." Casey slumped in her seat when the officer had gone again. "If we _were_ the murderers, the _entire legal process_ would be faster than this."

"Careful there, Case. Don't try killing anyone around here to speed up the process."

"Tempted. Sorely tempted."

**Three Days Earlier (somewhere in NY)**

Tiny clammy feet crawled across her neck, whiskers tickled her chin…with a gasp, Buffy sat up and seized the rat to throw it across the alley. "Where… demon!" She leapt up, scanning the immediate area for the demon that had grabbed her. "Great. That's just great. It takes all that trouble to throw me into another place and doesn't bother leaving a forwarding address." As she headed out to get her bearings, she checked her pockets for weapons and brightened minimally when she pulled Kendra's old stake from its place on her belt. "Looks like it's just you and me, Mr. Pointy. I think going out and slaying a few vampires sounds fun."

"One lone slayer out with no one to protect her?"

Buffy stilled for an instant. It was just a few vampires. Just a few.

"I'm hungry for some slayer tonight." The first of the four vampires rushed forwards. Buffy ducked beneath his arms and kicked him in the stomach to send him reeling. The other two came for her together and it was a volley of kicks and punches—theirs, hers—that was little more than a whirlwind of movement. She staked one and fell back when the other punched her in the face. She dropped the stake when the vampire she'd first faced twisted her arms beneath her back and continued squeezing.

Buffy held back the whimper when the muscle was strained, but couldn't hold back the scream when she felt the bone snapped.

"This slayer's not as hard as the last one." He laughed, catching her neck in the crook of his elbow to restrain her.

She rammed her elbow as hard as she could into his ribs, enough to temporarily stun him. She ran to snatch up her stake but he slammed her to the ground, grinding her broken arm beneath his weight.

Buffy sucked in her breath, to ignore the pain long enough to throw him off. The sounds of a scuffle and a vampire's cry before it was reduced to ash…

"You want to let her go or you want to fight for it? Either way you're getting a stake to the heart."

The vampire growled, leaning down to bury his fangs in Buffy's neck, only to give a snarl when he was thrown off. She scrambled to her feet, holding her broken arm, watching as her mysterious stranger battled the remaining vampire.

The vampire was fast, but his opponent was faster, deadlier, moving with a fluidity that Buffy had only seen from Kendra and Faith. Slayers.

_He's another slayer. _


	3. Chapter 3

The slayer sent the vampire reeling with a kick to the stomach. "Why is it always slay, slay with vamps? You guys just won't stay down, will you? Good thing there's a slayer." He met Buffy's eyes, gave a quirk of a smile before he tossed the stake to ash the vampire as it was rushing for him again.

"So you're the slayer." Buffy beat him to Mr. Pointy and replaced the stake to hang on her belt. "Can't say I'm not surprised. Been doing this long?"

"It's an acquired pastime."

"Acquired. When I came into it, slaying was more of a destiny than an actual choice." She looked at him keenly, taking in the devil-may-care attitude through the leather jacket, fading bruises scattered along jaw and cheeks, light brown hair spiked at the tips. "Do you actually take it seriously?"

"I'm the slayer. How seriously do I need to take it?"

"Oh don't mind me. I just got transported to your reality and can't help myself from critiquing your methods, which obviously you enjoy too much," Buffy said, unable to hold back a twinge of sarcasm. She held out her hand. "Buffy Summers, slayer."

He appraised her before returning he gesture. "Little bit of criticism never hurt anyone, especially when it turns out that _you're_ the one getting your methods changed." He chuckled at her scowl. "Penn."

"Watcher?"

"Don't have one. Don't need one."

Buffy frowned a bit. "So how exactly do you interpret signs? You know, there's this big apocalypse coming but you don't know about it cause you don't have a Watcher to read the signs for you."

"Signs! I go on patrol, slay demons and dust vamps. What else is there to do?"

"Maybe this is why there needed to be _two_ slayers here; to pick up your slack. All your talk and you're just a guy with a stake trying to fit the role of slayer." Buffy began to head out of the alley, having had more than enough of this wanna-be. "If you can't take this seriously, don't bother."

He moved in front of her, catching her wrists. "C'mon, don't be like that. We're slayers, we can work this out, right? Maybe you can give me some pointers, and maybe I can get you to loosen up a bit."

"Pointers," Buffy said dubiously. "Somehow I doubt you'd take them."

"There's a lot of things I doubt you'd do too."

Maybe it was her gut curiosity getting the better of her again or simply the want for companionship that made Buffy agree to come back to Penn's place. Another slayer was rare. A male slayer was unheard of. She'd have to ask Giles about slayer history when she got back (ignoring the_ if_ she'd get back at all). For all she knew, it was years before her time or years after. Penn could be the slayer that came around after her death. Death, what a sobering thought, she couldn't help musing as she watched out the windows at a sleeping city.

"No patrolling tonight?" she accepted the coke he offered her, simultaneously rewarding him with a look of disapproval and popping the lid.

He dragged up a chair and sat across from her, crossing one leg over the other as he drank from an unmarked can. "Tell me you go patrolling _every _night."

"Well" she had to suppress a squeak of guilt. "Most nights"

"Off night" he countered.

"And how many of those do you have in a single week?"

Penn took another long drink before licking his lips and setting down the can. "You, Buffy Summers, are one hell of a slayer. I don't believe for a second that you're as self-righteous as you say you are."

"And you think you…"

"Hey, I wasn't done." He paused a second. "You're a pretty head-turner and I'm sure you're a kick-ass slayer so why don't we do this slaying business tomorrow? You can get settled in, we'll work out a battle plan and then hit the streets tomorrow after sundown when all the nasties poke their heads out."

"And that battle plan will take all day."

"First rule of patrolling: never do it in the day if you can help it. Civilians are around and they get in the way."

"Actually the first rule is 'don't die'."

"Alright, I guess that comes first," Penn conceded. "No use to slaying if you aren't alive to do it."

"Riiiiight" Buffy finished her coke and crushed up the empty can to toss in the garbage. "Well I guess I could find the closest…um…free motel?"

"As if. You can have mine. I usually stay up at night anyway."

Maybe she was throwing herself too much at his mercy and he was responding in turn. Slayer, he's a slayer. He might've been rubbing it in just to impress her but she'd seen him in action and he was slayer-material. Buffy, stripped down to her underwear, promising herself she'd ask Penn for a change of clothes in the morning, and crawled under the sheets.

"I wonder what Giles would say. Trapped in some weird time and trusting the first decent person you meet. Well, it was him or the vampires and there's only one thing on their minds."

So what's on his? Buffy lay on her back, turned to the side and staring at the light that crept in beneath the door. "If he's a slayer and I'm _the_ slayer, there's more than one way to make this work. New place, another slayer. Sorry, Giles, but I've got this covered."

Shoving the rational part of her brain that Giles had influenced to the background, Buffy padded to the door and opened it halfway. "I can't sleep. Do you mind if we go over some of those slaying-strategy meetings now?"

Penn came over to lean in the doorframe, looking her over with a grin. "I thought you'd ask. Show you my moves if you show me yours."

Buffy eyed him straight-on. "Let's see what you've got then, _slayer_."

"Call that being a slayer? You might as well be an amateur…" Buffy trailed off, momentarily breathless when Penn pressed his lips to the soft spot of her collarbone.

"_Amateu_r?" He worked his way a bit lower, just to prove her wrong.

"You don't just slay demons?" her voice was barely a whisper.

"I slay slayers too," he smirked into her skin.

Buffy giggled, tangling her legs with his, kicking the sheets off further in the process. "So, does this end with my head being severed or a stake in my heart?"

He rolled to the far edge of the bed, bringing her with him and stopped near the edge, her beneath him to pick up the stake from the end table and touch it to her heart. "Ironically poetic."

"Mmmm" Buffy trailed kisses down his neck, languidly running a hand up his chest. Then pulled away.

"Something wrong?"

She stared up at Penn, frozen. "You're a vampire."

"And a slayer." He leaned forward to kiss her again, harder, restless…it reminded her of Angel. When Buffy didn't reciprocate, he pulled away.

"Vampire slayer" she shoved him off and went to gather her clothes. "I should've gone for that motel."

Penn lay on his side watching her. "I wasn't the first vampire to be with you. I recognize Angelus' mark…he bit you once and it never healed completely."

"You know Angel." She stopped what she was doing, but she didn't turn around.

"He made me."

"He still acted like my friend, we were close then but one night he came after me. Caught me and began to drain the blood from my body—I could feel it, every drop. Then he stops and asks me if I want a second chance. He says he can gave me a better life." Penn pushed off from the bed and came closer to Buffy as he spoke. "I didn't have much of a family, but I had Angelus. He said it wasn't just about being a monster; it was living in a way he never could before. So as I'm dying in his arms, I trust him. I take my first taste of blood." He pushes the blonde tendrils from Buff's shoulder, kissing her neck as he encircles his arms around her waist.

"Angel turned you into a vampire?"

"I trusted him." Penn moves one hand to press against her chest and feel her heart thrum beneath his fingers. "I trusted him to take my life."

Buffy doesn't say anything, so he goes on.

"Can you imagine, being alive one minute and then you become something else, an outcast. You don't belong to the dead and you don't belong to the living—you become this paradox and you can't help yourself to kill innocent people just to survive. Get enough taste and it can twist you… it's the price of immortality."

"So you slay the demons just to keep your soul?"

"Wouldn't you?"

She turns so she's facing him. "You knew I was the slayer when you first saw me. You knew I could've staked you."

"What's the use of living forever if you can't take a few chances here and there?" Penn kisses her, fiercely, passionately, his hands rove to her shoulders. When Buffy breaks away to take a breath, he then moves to her neck and bites.

Blood drains from her, into him.

_He twisted against the steel grip, but Angelus only dug into his bones harder. "Angel….Angelus…" he pants as the hot liquid trickles down his chest. _

Slayer blood was a thing of legend. Sweeter than virgin blood, richer… she struggles, reaching for a stake that she doesn't have while he sinks his teeth in further.

_Drop by drop his life was stolen away. Angelus betrayed…he can barely breathe, can only stare at the cobblestones of the alley and wonder what they'll say when they find him. They won't say vampire. Angelus won't be caught. He sags forward, feeling Angelus pause in his feasting, but the vampire catches him. _

The slayer is nearly-dead in his arms.

_"Do you want a second chance?"_

"I can give you a better life."


	4. Chapter 4

**Two \Days Earlier (Sunnydale)**

Willow was glad for the weekend and the chance to avoid classes, not that she'd be able to concentrate anyway with Buffy being gone. She'd scoured over the area she'd last seen Buffy for any hints where to start looking, but there hadn't been anything. It could be worse, she kept trying to tell herself. She could've been killed right there instead of just disappearing to who-knows-were in a place it might be impossible to return from.

"Willow"

"Huh?" she nearly dropped the book she'd been trying to read.

"Find anything?"

Willow met Giles' concern with a sigh. "I've been trying but there's nothing of this. And that necklace? Well, it might be just that and maybe we actually found a new demon this time."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Stop that. Stop trying to make it sound better than it actually is. Buffy's _gone_, Giles, and I don't know how to get her back. I've…tried a few spells, but I might as well be waving around a plastic wand and throwing glitter for all the help they've done. If it had been anyone else, Buffy would've found a way by now." She uselessly flipped through the pages before slamming the book shut and pushing it to the side.

"You're underestimating your own abilities and that kind of negativity won't help Buffy or anyone." The Watcher took a seat across from Willow and reached for a new book. "I know you're on edge since Buffy's gone—without a slayer, we're _all _on edge, but until a new slayer shows up, we have to believe that she's not as far as you think. If a new slayer walks in here in the next few hours, _then _you have permission to worry."

"What if she was taken to another reality? Would that summon another slayer?"

Giles removed his glasses, cleaning them on the hem of his shirt while he composed his answer. "If that was the case, then maybe. I don't believe that demon was from another reality though."

"Since when did _you_ get a good look at it?" She looked up, annoyed, when Xander walked in cheerily.

"So, hard and strong on that Buff trail?"

"You aren't doing much either," said Willow in a mutter.

"Taking that as a yes…"

She met his uncertainty in a glare and began pawing through a spellbook. "We can find a spell to bring her back to the present time. For all we know, she could be in a future or past reality or no reality at all…Xander, you'll need to help too. Find something about that amulet that was on the demon. If we can identify that…"

"Whoaaa…slow down there, Will. We'll get Buffy back."

"It's not your fault, Willow." Giles straightened the pile of books spread across the table in front of them. "Buffy wouldn't want you thinking that."

* * *

**(Somewhere in Sunnydale) Two and a half days earlier**

A warm coppery tang still burned against her lips and she licked slowly, savoring the taste. Blood. The previous night came back to her. Penn's teeth in her neck, _"I can give you a better life"_ repeating in her mind, Penn slitting his wrist for her to suck at the blood that oozed out.

Vampire.

_Vampire._

Am I still the slayer? She felt livened, but she was still _herself_? The taste for blood hadn't given her the obsessive urge to run out and start biting people. Am I still the slayer?

* * *

**(New York) Present time**

"So I hear you're the killer type now, Jason. Does dating Shraeger force you to extremes?"

Jason pulled a face. "Yea, ha ha _funny_, Alvarez. Let's see what happens to you when _you_ get sicced with murders you didn't pull." He had to hold Casey back before she'd tried shoving herself through the bars. "Whoa easy there, Case."

Eddie's face lost some of its banter as soon as he saw Casey's face darken to hellbent before the comment had finished leaving his mouth. "I'm sure there's nothing wrong with her…" to be safe, he backed further from the door.

"Damn straight," growled Casey. The hours of confinement taking their toll on her—questioning witnesses, running DNA against evidence, having to constantly threaten the cops just to keep her in the same space as Walsh, and the waiting endless waiting. She would've had Jason pinned on the floor hours ago if she hadn't had to worry about that little "public indecency" thing being added to the charges. "Just give them the testimony and get us out of here. Eddie… you _know _Jason isn't the serial killer."

Nicole Brandt came up behind her husband, slipping her arm loosely in his and winking at Casey. "Trust me, the rest of New York is safer if you're in there. Goodness knows you'd probably have your poor partner tied to the bedposts all morning."

"Jealous cow"

"Sex-crazed bitch"

Jason gripped Casey harder as she cursed Nicole with a myriad of STDs. "What _is_ it with you two? Case, Case…_no_ _one_ deserves to have a rash there."

"Get. Out. Nicole."

"We should get together and double date, shouldn't we?"

"Honey, Eddie Alvarez should get back to the station so he can continue protecting the city against criminals of all shapes and sizes."

"One minute, sweetstuff." Nicole gripped the bars, less than a half foot from the ravages of Casey. "Tell me one thing, Shraeger, and I can get them to get you out."

Jason nudged her with a murmur, "see, she's trying now."

Casey's eyes narrowed. "Continue."

"What's it like being sexually active _with your own partner_?"

"Oh hell, Nicole…I'll be by the door."

"Eddie… EDDIE ALVAREZ, GET YOUR COWARDLY ASS BACK HERE." Jason yelled after the detective's fast retreating form. "I SWEAR I'LL PRANK YOU TILL THE DAY YOU DIE AND YOU'LL _WISH_ YOU'D ONLY CAUGHT HERPES."

Casey gave Jason a sharp nudge to the stomach. "It's fine, Walsh. It's better than some of the things she's asked in the past."

"Something tells me, I'm glad those things remained a mystery to me."

"Imagine trusting your partner completely—you know he's got your back on the field and he's looking out for you. Then the day's done and you go back with him to his sorry little diner, maybe share some food with him and then have shameless sex and all the while you've got it in the back of your mind that there's nothing you wouldn't give him. You'd take a bullet for the man and you let him press his naked body to yours and kiss you in all the places he knows tickle the most." A faint smile began to creep across her face. "Then sometimes you walk into the station, you're ready to give up until you see your partner look at you with his adorable sexy grin and it takes all your self-control just to keep from screwing him on his own desk."

"Oh, girl…you've got it _bad._" Nicole shook her head in sympathy.

"What can I say. They don't come sexier than Walsh."

"I'll have a little chat with the warden and spring you both." Nicole headed for the main office, but stopped to point back at Casey "I was serious about that double date."

"I like you, but I'm not sure I like you that much."

Jason leaned against the bars, grinning at Casey. "We're still on off-time. Should we swing by some corner shop and grab stuff for pancakes? I think I owed you some."

"Mmmm…think you did." She pressed closer to her partner, passionately kissing with all decency reservations gone as her hands held the bars behind him to effectively trap him in place. Jason smirked into her. Then his hands moved downwards to slip under her shirt, slowly roving up the landscape of her back and Casey could feel the room warming.

"_Casey Shraeger_"

Casey stumbled backwards, self-consciously tugging her shirt back down before she turned to face her mother. "I…didn't expect to see you here."

"I can see that." She regarded Jason briefly. "This is your boyfriend?"

"He's my _partner_, mother."

"Your father's paying the bail for both of you so we expect you for dinner tonight."

"Well, there goes the evening," Casey mumbled just loud enough for Walsh to hear.


End file.
